Hey everyone! It's about time we had another chapter of this story! But before I get started, there are the reviews from the last chapter!

1TGN: Tails and Cosmo's knowledge of Robotnik has certainly proved useful. Tails is lucky to have Cosmo with him as well, especially since she's been helping him adjust better to being with the Resistance again! I'm glad you enjoyed their conversation as well, it was super wholesome to write!

AndTails: Tailsmo has been fun to write given the unusual context of this story! I'm glad you've been liking it as their relationship is very wholesome!

That's everybody, so let's get going!

Mechanized Production

Reckoning

Tails and the rest of the Resistance awoke early the next morning. Today was a very big day, it was the day they finally took down Robotnik for good. At least, that was the hope.

Almost as soon as everyone was awake preparations were immediately under way. Tails made his way to the supply closet, grabbing one of the plasma charges there. Reaching behind his back, he inserted the charge into the intake for his augmentations, expending about half of the charge to completely refill the energy for his thrusters.

Amy arrived as he set the half-empty energy charge back on the shelf.

"You ready for today?" She asked, grabbing a pair of charges before sitting down and removing the two mostly empty energy charges housed in the head of her hammer, carefully replacing them with fresh ones.

"I think…" Tails answered, sitting next to her.

"This is the best shot we're going to get." The hedgehog responded, returning the two empty canisters she now had to the supply closet, grabbing two more new ones and dropping them inside her backpack. "Robotnik doesn't know we're coming, so he won't really be prepared."

"Still, I mean, it's Robotnik… We don't even know what he might have waiting for us…"

"Well, we've got all of us." Amy continued, placing a hand on the fox's shoulder. "That's part of what makes the Resistance special. We're a family here, as long as we've all got each other's backs, it'll be fine."

Tails let a bit of a smile cross his face. Maybe Amy had a point, maybe he was worrying too much. "Maybe you're right… With Robotnik gone… We could finally stop worrying. Stop being afraid."

"That's the hope." The hedgehog responded, making her way to her feet and extending her hand out to the fox. "So I'm gonna ask again. You ready for today?"

Tails fully smiled as he took her hand and got to his feet, his mechanical tails flicking once behind him. "Yeah, let's do this."

-X-

Soon Tails found himself at the edge of the treeline that surrounded the Complex, the rest of the Resistance also concealed by the morning shadows cast by the canopy above.

"Alright," Amy said to the assembled group, pointing with her hammer toward the entrance to the structure in front of them. "Once we're inside we're going to have to improvise. Tails, you know where we're going right?"

"I'll do my best."

"Well, you'd know better than any of us." The rose hedgehog responded before turning her attention back to the Complex. She couldn't help but let a smile cross her face. She'd been waiting for this day for a long time. "Alright Resistance, let's do this."

In unison the group charged forward, exiting the trees and rapidly approaching the Conplex doors. In almost immediate response dozens of Robotnik's drones took to the skies as the structure's automated defenses powered up.

Whisper immediately took aim at the machines, her mechanical eye feeding her the information needed to take them down with expert precision. Each plasma bolt from her rifle destroyed one of Robotnik's drones.

The wolf tried her best to keep the bulk of the machines off of the rest of the group as they approached the main entrance. Sonic and Tangle moved to the front of the group as groups of humanoid security robots moved to intercept the Resistance.

Sonic smiled and charged forward with blinding speed, curling into a ball and letting his metal spines do the work for him. He sliced one of the machines in half before landing and doing the same to another, continuing to use his extreme speed to dodge volleys of lasers aimed at him by the drones above.

Tangle's large mechanical tail extended toward one of the security robots, grabbing it around the torso and tossing it at another, destroying both in the process. The lemur's tail coiled around another robot before tightening its grip, crushing the machine completely.

Tails smiled as the group approached the main entrance, turning his attention to the nearby robots in order to buy more time for the rest of the group to get inside.

Amy produced an explosive from her backpack and tossed it to Bunnie, who armed the device. The hedgehog then swung her hammer at the wall, shockwaves of plasma discharging as her swing landed. The impact created a sizable indent in the wall and Bunnie tossed the now armed explosive inside. Both of them along with Cream and Cosmo got a good distance away before the device exploded, sending a cloud of dust into the air, the force from the explosion knocking them off their feet.

The blast left a sizable hole in the wall, giving the Resistance access to inside the structure. Bunnie used her large mechanical arm to pull another segment of the breached wall away, further increasing the size of the hole.

Tails turned himself to face the opening and activated the thrusters on his back. The fox flew through the hole in the wall landing on his feet, skidding to a stop in the middle of an intersection of hallways. He quickly took in his surroundings, trying to figure out where he was as Amy, Bunnie, Cream, and Cosmo followed him inside, with Cheese trailing not far behind them.

"Which way?" Amy asked, her voice fighting against the blaring tone of the alarms ringing in Tails' ears.

"I think straight ahead." He answered, his tone somewhat unsure.

"Well, hopefully, you know where you're going… Sonic, Tangle, and Whisper should be buying us as much time as they can but I don't know how long they'll be able to hold out for."

The fox nodded before he set off down the hall, the rest of the Resistance right on his heels.

As the group turned a corner they came face to face with a pair of Robotnik's drones, Tails barely had time to fling himself to the side, avoiding a laser blast from one of the machines. Cosmo manipulated the vines that made up her arm into a whip and struck one of the robots, slamming it to the floor. Amy's hammer connected with another one, completely shattering the machine with the force of the impact.

The group continued onward, dispatching a second set of drones before coming to a hallway that Tails recognized.

"This way!" He yelled. As he did, a trio of familiar figures rounded the corner behind them.

"Stop right there!" Shadow yelled. "If you do not comply you will be terminated immediately!"

Omega primed the weapons mounted on its wrists, pointing them toward the group as they took aim at the assembled mobians.

"Bunnie, with me!" Amy exclaimed, drawing her hammer. "The rest of you keep going, we'll hold them off!"

Tails decided it was probably best not to argue as he, Cosmo, and Cream continued down the hallway. Sounds of gunfire, explosions, and the heavy impacts of Amy's hammer echoed behind them as they ran.

The sounds soon faded back to the now familiar blaring alarms as they reached the small hallway that led to the elevator. Soon the trio stood outside the elevator doors. Tails held the barcode tattooed on his arm up to the scanner next to the doors, curious as to if it would let him in.

"Specimen designation zero zero four one five." A computerized voice spoke, "You do not have the authorization required to access this area. Please return to your quarters."

"A bit late for that." Tails thought before turning to look at Cream. "Can you get us into this?"

The lights on the implant near the top of Cream's head started to flash as Cheese moved toward the identification scanner, using one of its hands to connect with a port on its exterior. "We're about to find out if Whisper's modifications worked…" The rabbit added somewhat absentmindedly, her brain mostly focused on controlling Cheese to open the elevator doors.

"Specimen designation one zero zero three four." The machine continued, "You do not have the authorization required to-"

The computerized voice was suddenly cut short as a light on the machine flashed green and the doors slowly opened.

"That was harder than I thought it'd be." Cream added as she, Cosmo, and Tails stepped into the elevator. Cheese disconnected himself from the scanner and joined the trio as the elevator doors shut and it started downward.

The nervousness in Tails' stomach only intensified as the elevator traveled for a while before it finally reached its destination. The three Resistance members were immediately greeted by a pair of security drones as the doors opened. One of them was immediately struck by Cosmo's whip, knocking it into the wall nearby. Some of the machine's outer casing shattered from the impact but it managed to stay operational, taking aim at the elemental.

Tails activated the thrusters on his back, tackling the other drone to the ground before spinning around to strike it with his metal tails, destroying the machine.

The drone Cosmo was fighting fired a plasma bolt, striking the elemental in the shoulder. She recoiled from the force of the blast as Tails delivered a kick to the machine's exposed internals, causing it to tumble lifelessly to the floor.

"You alright?" Tails asked, obviously somewhat concerned.

"I'm fine," Cosmo responded, taking a look at where she'd been hit. The plasma bolt had scorched a bunch of the plants that made up her shoulder, and while the limb felt a bit stiffer, it was still usable.

Cream looked over at the thick airlock door that separated the trio from the next room, the lights on her implant flashing rapidly as she thought of how to get past it. Cheese floated over and connected to one of the panels in the door, trying to interface with it.

Suddenly, a surge of electricity shot from the control panel and into Cheese. The lights on Cream's implant turned a solid green color as flashes of pain surged through her nervous system. She screamed in pain before the electric shock stopped and she collapsed to her hands and knees, panting to try and catch her breath.

"What happened there?" Cosmo asked.

"The system's got some sort of defense mechanism to stop unintended machines from interfacing with it." The rabbit responded, slowly getting back to her feet. "It shocked Cheese and because we're connected by this implant I could feel it too."

"Any other way to get through this?" Tails asked.

"I can maybe get the system to just unlock the door, trying to open it is what caused the discharge. But we'd have to pull the door open after and it looks pretty heavy…"

"I can deal with that," Cosmo responded.

Tails gave her a bit of a surprised look but Cream just nodded and Cheese once again connected to the door panel. It wasn't long before the sound of hydraulics releasing was heard in the hallway.

"It's unlocked, Cream responded as Cheese disconnected from the door.

Cosmo immediately thought through what she needed to do. She manipulated the vines that made up her arms, causing them to stretch outward and latch onto the seam in the door. Then, using all the force she could, she pulled on both halves of the heavy airlock door. For a moment, nothing happened, but soon the door began to slowly open as Cosmo's vines pulled on it.

Eventually, the opening was wide enough for Tails and Cream to slip through. Cosmo continued to pull on it for a bit longer but eventually stepped through herself, releasing her grip on the door in the process. Almost instantly it closed behind her, plunging the room the trio were in into complete darkness.

Tails knew this room, this was Robotnik's room where he oversaw the facility. But the real question still stood unanswered.

Where was Robotnik?

Before his eyes could adjust to the darkness, the fox felt the sting of a plasma bolt strike him square in the back. The energy burned his fur and the force from the blast knocked him to the ground. He quickly but painfully rolled over to his back, adrenaline rushing through his veins as a pair of glowing red eyes stared down at him from the darkness.

"You really don't understand do you?" Robotnik's voice spoke from all around the room. "Did you really think you ever stood a chance?"

The monitors in the room turned on, displaying hundreds of images of every inch of the Compex, illuminating Robotnik and the trio of Resistance members in their digital glow.

Tails painfully got to his feet, trying his best to ignore the surges of pain up his back as the other two Resistance members turned to look at the man, fear evident in their expressions and posture.

"You had so much potential Four Fifteen… You were destined for greatness!" Robotnik continued, the dozens of mechanical fibers that made up the man's left arm separated, revealing a concealed plasma blaster built into the appendage itself.

The man fired another bolt of plasma at the fox, hitting him directly in the chest and sending him down to the floor once more as overwhelming pain flooded his thoughts.

Tails' pained yelp snapped Cosmo and Cream out of their fear-induced trance and Cosmo rushed forward, trying to stop Robotnik from hurting the fox any further.

"I expected Four Fifteen, but you…" The man continued, turning to look at Cosmo. "I'm your creator EMD-1… There's nothing you can do to hurt me…"

Cosmo tried to strike Robotnik with her vines but the man simply used his arm to block the strike, the foilage simply glancing off the durable metal fibers of his robotic appendage. The lights on the small white-colored box-shaped computer embedded in the back of the man's head began to flash and immediately Cosmo felt her control over her own plants slip.

"I haven't had a reason to use that kill switch…" Robotnik continued. "You were to be the first in a line of other machines just like you, but seeing as you turned out to be nothing more than a rebellious failure, I scrapped your entire project. I thought it a tragedy at the time, but now… I'm going to take pleasure in scrapping you for parts…"

Cosmo's very own body instantly felt incredibly heavy, and she too collapsed to the floor, unable to move. Her consciousness soon faded as her central housing unit shut off, deactivating her temporarily.

Robotnik finally turned his attention to Cream, the rabbit's eyes going wide in terror.

"I expected more from you…" He said, "But then again I suppose you've never been one to stand up for yourself…"

Another set of drones entered the room as Robotnik smiled, quickly surrounding the rabbit.

"Although, that implant of yours could still prove useful… Perhaps I'll keep you around, maybe relegate your brain to something else…"

Robotnik waved his hand toward the door, prompting the drones to escort the rabbit out.

Robotnik then turned his attention back to his screens. He was the one in control here…

And no Resistance was going to change that…

Alright, everyone, that's all for this chapter. Hopefully you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun to write! Let me know what you thought about the chapter in a review, and hopefully, I'll be able to get the next update out soon! Until next time!